Work begins to rebuild the Rose Bowl

MASON CITY, Iowa – Work is underway to bring a popular north Iowa destination back to life.

A fire this past winter forced Mason City’s Rose Bowl bowling alley and lounge to close its doors.

Demolition crews have been busy at work getting the facility ready for renovations to rebuild the alley and the owners tell us that they plan to hire a contractor within the next week.

This is no simple task bringing such a historic and long standing building back to life after such a massive fire, and John Daskalos, the demolition manager on site, says that it’s a much bigger project than anticipated.

“We’ve been here a month already and we’ve already probably taken out about 100 tons of rubble,” he says; and the work continues.

While it was not a total loss, today crews worked to remove burnt ceilings and maintain what is left of the electrical system.

Daskalos says that even though a lot has been accomplished, there is still a long way to go and because there is still so much work to be done, the owners have not set an opening date for things to get rolling again.